Underdogs give hope to all of us

No matter which team - Diamondbacks or Rockies - represents the National League in the upcoming World Series, it has to be the sentimental favorite because of three little words.

Worst to first.

What a great life lesson. Two teams yoked together at the bottom of the same division last year are in line to claim the ultimate prize. Mercy, how I love sports.

Of course, caring about a team will break your heart. Mine has been smashed by two teams over the years; my native Baltimore Orioles and more recently the Boston Red Sox. When the curse was reversed in 2004, I sent my NYC area-dwelling children on a scavenger hunt for every sports headline that trumpeted Boston's record-setting comeback against the New York Yankees in the ALCS. Those tearsheets, framed, line my stairwell at home. Someday I may do them over in needlepoint for future generations.

I can't carry them around with me, so I bought a talisman, a key chain that, when you push its button once, plays the radio call of the last out of Boston's improbable victory over New York. Push it again, and you hear the same announcer's call of the final out of the ensuing World Series, which the Red Sox swept from the St. Louis Cardinals.

It gets played often. In fact, it's on its second battery and I just recently bought a spare. On those days when I feel like I'm so far behind that nothing I do will make a difference, I push that button. It lifts my spirits (and keeps people away from me in dark parking lots). I have a bottle opener that plays the same calls. I love what they memorialize: the ultimate comeback.

It wasn't just because my team beat the Yankees - although that was a nice touch - but because it happened in such a doggedly dramatic way. With the Red Sox down to practically their final out in that series, unassuming, hardworking utility player Dave Roberts hustled and swiped second base because that was his job at that moment.

That steal, and what it ultimately led to (eight straight wins for Boston, and their first World Series championship since 1918), was recently named by ESPN as the top ALCS moment. It may be duplicated, but it will never be topped, at least not for New England fans. All because one guy tried to make a small difference even when it would have been just as easy to call it a day.

We try to teach youngsters to give their all on the playing field, to play until the last out is recorded or the last seconds on the clock have ticked away, because you just never know what can happen. We also tell them that staying the course, in sports or in life, can stop the skid and send you back to the head of the pack. Believe in yourself, we say. Keep going, even if doing your job seems like an insignificant contribution to a losing effort.

Way to go, Arizona and Colorado, in punctuating that message so clearly. It's a shame only one of you can go to the Fall Classic.

Since they hail from two relatively laid-back media markets, the Diamondbacks' and Rockies' remarkable turnarounds most likely won't get the hype they deserve. But eventually, fans of one of those teams will have their very own last call to savor: "And the - your team name here - are going to the World Series!"

Worst to First, Curse Reversed; quench the thirst, your cup runneth over. Key chains and bottle openers are in your future. May you savor the thrill, again and again.

Cathy Nelson Price is a Daily News reporter; e-mail her at cnprice@mdn.net